Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has alleged that he had been kept in the dark about the decision to award the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 to the Gita Press publishing house, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday. Chowdhury, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, is a member of the jury that adjudicates the award.
The Congress leader has claimed that he had not been informed about or invited to any meetings of the jury. Chowdhury said that he came to know about the award to Gita Press through media reports.
“This is nothing but the sheer autocratic attitude of this government, which has been very much explicit and evident in all their actions and reactions,” he told The Indian Express.
The Congress has criticised the Centre’s decision to award the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 to the Gita Press publishing house. Describing the decision as a travesty, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh had likened the decision to awarding Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar and Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse.
Akshaya Mukul, the author of an acclaimed book on the Gita Press, wrote in The Indian Express: “The figure of Gandhi bore the brunt of [Gita Press’s] belligerence since he was the only one who professed sanatan dharma, and yet kept his doors and windows open to progressive ideas.
Also Read: Gandhi Peace Prize winner Gita Press: What was the relationship of its founder with Gandhi like?
According to the Code of Procedure for the Gandhi Peace Prize, the awardee is selected by a five-member jury, which includes the prime minister, the chief justice of India, the leader of the Opposition or the leader of the largest Opposition party in Lok Sabha and two “eminent personalities”.
The jury can take the final decision only when at least three of its members are present.
On Tuesday, unidentified officials at the Ministry of Culture told The Indian Express that two “eminent personalities” in the jury to confer the prize to Gita Press were Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak.
The officials also refuted Chowdhury’s claims and said that he had been invited to the meeting to select the awardee. “We followed up incessantly, but no response came and he did not turn up,” they said.
Based in Gorakhpur, Gita Press is one of the largest publishers of Hindu religious texts. The Gandhi Peace Prize is an annual award conferred by the government as a tribute to the ideals of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Also read: How the Gita Press opposed birth control to shore up the Hindu population
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